Homemade Sugar-Free Twix Bars

I am a huge fan of dark chocolate and I typically prefer it over the milk variety. Even before I went low carb and began to reduce my sugar intake drastically, I would seek out treats made with deep, dark chocolate. I love the intensity of it, the richness and the slight tanginess of it. And my taste for really dark chocolate, the 90% cacao variety, has only increased since my dietary changes. But I’ve always acknowledged that milk chocolate has its place in the world. It is sweeter and creamier, and whereas dark chocolate can sometimes overpower more subtle flavours, milk chocolate tend to blend in a little better. I get why people love it so much and why they consider dark chocolate to be too bitter. I think they’re wrong, of course, but I do my best to understand their position. A few readers have asked me to try to make my own milk chocolate. I have resisted, not because I don’t like milk chocolate but because I know that making it, or at least making it well, is not so simple. I’ve made my own low carb dark chocolate chips and low carb chocolate bark and they are delicious and serve the purpose admirably. I make both frequently. I’ve also tried making my own low carb white chocolate and found it tough to get a smooth consistency. The cocoa butter just doesn’t want to combine with the sweetener very well and it ends up a bit gritty. The white chocolate is good enough in other baked items, but I don’t really like it that much on its own. Milk chocolate requires milk solids to lighten the flavour and colour, and even from my limited chocolate making experience I know this would be very difficult to do in a home kitchen. To get a smooth consistency when combining the milk solids with the cocoa butter, cocoa solids and sweetener really requires the proper equipment. In other words, a conching machine to continually scrape and agitate the mixture until all of the particles combine into a smooth, homogenous substance. I don’t own such a thing and have neither the means nor the inclination to purchase one. And even if I did, you likely wouldn’t own one and wouldn’t be able to recreate my recipes. Thankfully, someone out there is actually making some really good low carb milk chocolate, so neither you nor I have to put the work in at all. Lily’s Sweets makes really great milk chocolate that is as creamy and smooth as any of the higher carb, sugar-filled stuff. It’s also Fair Trade certified. I’ve found it at my local Whole Foods, but it can also be purchased on Amazon and Vitacost. Apparently Wegman’s carries them too, if you happen to have one of those in your area. I like all their chocolate varieties and I think their chocolate chips are the best sugar-free chips on the market. Since I’m a big fan, I reached out to them to see if they would sponsor a giveaway here on All Day I Dream About Food and they sweetly obliged. The Giveaway: Two winners will each get a set of Lily’s Chocolate Bars, one of each kind they make. And I am going to sweeten the deal and send each winner 2 bags of Lily’s Chocolate Chips! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post, just a few bars of Lily’s chocolate with which to develop recipes.

Nutritional Disclaimer

Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program.
I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them.
I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.

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Chocoperfection makes good milk chocolate too, but it is usually easier for me to find Lily’s locally. We don’t even have a Whole Food’s or Wegman’s where I live. I usually get my low carb cooking supplies at our local natural food markets. Walmart has a gluten free section in many stores now, but mostly it is premade foods and baking mixes. Anyway, I like dark and milk chocolate, never was a fan of white chocolate.

If I’m eating it plain, I love a good 70-75% dark. I keep trying to like the higher % plain, but I can only enjoy that intensity in cookies, etc. My absolute favorite is dark chocolate covered caramels with sea salt. Oy. Not ideal for blood sugar!

My favorite kind of chocolate is….ALL of it! lol Except the sugar-free kind with sugar alcohols (other than erythritol), because my digestive system can’t tolerate them. I’m not sure if I can tolerate the inulin, either, but I’d like to try it to find out.

I love it all, but I prefer milk chocolate. I have tried Lilly’s dark chocolates, but not the milks yet! I also like Coco Polo’s and splurge on a bag of milk baking chips from time to time, but I was excited when Lilly’s popped up in local health food stores.

First, my vote is for very dark chocolate. [Actually the ONLY milk chocolate that I have found alluring is Coco Polo’s version, which is dangerously good.] Second, I prefer Coco Polo chocolate but switch to Lily’s when the higher cocoa content of the former might interfere with my sleep. IMHO, 54 percent does not = dark chocolate. I will say that as far as mouth feel goes, Lily’s is the winner. I REALLY wish Lily’s would come out with a bar that contains a higher percentage of cocoa!
I have found that chocolate with inclusions just spurs me to eat a lot of it. Also, a higher percentage of cocoa is more satisfying than a lower percentage, and thus I (chocoholic) am content with much less of it.

Maltitol hurts my stomach as if I were poisoned! Yuck! Hate that stuff! Xylitol actually hurts my tummy too, but not as much. Erythritol seems to be fine, thank goodness! Thanks for this recipe! Do you think gluccomannan would work in place of xantham gum?

I’m definitely a dark chocolate fan – even when I was a kid, I’d always take the Special Dark mini-bars at Halloween. I regularly use 85% dark now and like it a lot, particularly since I’m not likely to overindulge since it’s so intense 🙂

You car use white or brown sugar instead.
And before everyone attacks me saying coconut sugar is ‘healthier’, they should do their research an NO, I don’t mean Google and Dr. Oz!
Coconut sugar has the same calories as white sugar. The rumours flying about the low GI (35 vs. 60 for white sugar) are based on one terrible quality paper produced 14 years ago by government sanctioned research in…. you guessed it! The Philippines, the world’s top coconut sugar exporter. The testing was redone at the University of Sydney and published in 2014 as a GI of 54. Not exactly earth shattering compared to white sugar at 60.

If I’m just eating a bit of chocolate, I prefer dark (because I’m satisfied with less and I think it’s healthy); but, for baking, I prefer milk chocolate (and that’s what my family likes, too) I love Twix bars! Thanks for sharing the recipe.

We love Lilly’s dark chocolate chips. Yesterday we made your recipe for
Chocolate Brownie Donuts – Low Carb and Gluten-Free (we made them as bars). They are wonderful. Thank you for the recipe. We’ll be making them again soon.

I’ve never liked milk chocolate, even though a couple of my favorite candy bars had it – $100,000 bars and Twix. I could sometimes find the dark chocolate version of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which I much preferred.

These look great, but I will probably make them with dark chocolate instead of milk.

BTW, I love Lily’s Chocolate Chips! They save me a lot of extra time chopping chocolate. I get mine from netrition.com.

I really like Lily’s. My digestive system despises malitol; so, I was happy to find Lily’s. I live for all chocolate. I have 2 favorite Lily’s – dark chocolate coconut and milk chocolate with salted almonds. I like dipping the milk chocolate in natural peanut butter with sea salt added. For those that don’t know, Whole Foods gives you a 10% case discount when you purchase (I think 12 of any single item). You might want to double-check the minimum. So, I load up when they are on sale as they are relatively pricey.

BTW, I can’t wait to try this recipe. I don’t keep coconut sugar in my pantry. Any other suggestions? Also, I only have an 8×8 pan. Will that make a huge difference? Should I rig a 9×13 with heavy duty aluminum foil?

Do the 8×8 and cook the base for a few minutes longer. As for coconut sugar, you can do all Swerve and just add a few teaspoons of molasses to get the caramel colour, but it will harden up a bit more after cooling.

I used to prefer milk chocolate, but I have found since going low carb many years ago that my taste for sweet has changed drastically. Now I love dark chocolate and anything under 70% seems way too sweet for me. Twix bars used to be a favorite – can’t wait to try these!

Is there a substitute for the coconut sugar? I use erythrytol, ez sweetz, stevia and xylitol. Can’t find coconut sugar, I even Henning trouble finding unsweetened coconut for your magic bars I’ve been dying to try! 🙂

Having grown up in a candy making family, my grandfather, dad, uncle and cousins all had candy stores, I appreciate all chocolate but I have to say that dark chocolate has always been my favorite. Can’t wait to try these though!

Love chocolate from milk, Nestle’s semi-sweet chocolate morsels, to dark. As I’ve gotten older, I like the darker better. Thank you for all your GREAT chocolate LC recipes that keep me on track! I’ve missed TWIX!, so thank you very much! Any chance of a LC Kit Kat copy cat recipe coming soon?

thank you for all you do! its so wonderful to have you as my new lifestyle baking mentor! ive been a baker and cake decorator for twenty plus years, and im finding new excitement in baking for others because of your excellent hard work.. again thank you and God bless you! p.s. i share your amazing site with many of my customers … all so grateful. i love dark or milk chocolate with orange or any nuts

I have found Lily’s chocolate bats at whole Foods, Sprouts, and Natural Grocers here! My favorite so far are the Dark Chocolate Almond bar. I have not tried the milk chocolate or the chocolate chips, yet! Pick me, pick me!

Just made these and they are great! I ended up using dark chocolate which worked well. My cookie base came out soft unlike a twix but still delicious. They remind me of toffee bars which is a good thing.
Thanks for another great recipe!

My faith in your abilities is so boundless that when I saw this recipe I was SO excited because I just KNEW you had mastered low carb milk chocolate in the home kitchen and could hardly wait to get started! Alas, wait I must but I’m still excited to place an order and get started. I have grown to love dark chocolate more than ever but once on awhile I just long for some creamy, milk chocolate too. Thanks for sharing your talents!

Carolyn, I’ve found a product on Amazon that I’m wondering if it would help make white or milk chocolate. It’s powdered heavy cream. I made a batch last night of the chocolate recipe from your Sea Salt Almond bark, and used 3/4c of cocoa powder and 1/4 c of cream powder. I mixed the cocoa and the cream powder together first, then stirred it into the chocolate and cocoa butter. It worked relatively well, except that it’s soft at room temp, and I’d like to have it a bit firmer. Would something like this work with regular bakers chocolate and cocoa butter?

Thanks so much for your help. The goods I make from your recipes go to bake sales that benefit a 501c3 not for profit group that helps folks afford the care for their diabetic cats, instead of having them put down. With every sale, I attach a card that gives your site as the origin of the recipes, along with info on Dr Perlmutter’s book Grain Brain. Many folks are willing to learn about this lifestyle!

I really have grown to love dark chocolate(65%-70%). I also really love your blog. I have gotten some excellent recipes. The one I just made was the chocolate pound cake but I made muffins so I can portion control. I have to tell u they have really kept me on my low carb track. I just got a bag of Lilly’s chips and use them in my microwave mug cake.

I love all your treats Carolyn. I can’t wait to make these for a party this weekend. Can you let me know how you would recommend storing them? Can they be refrigerated frozen or will that wreck the caramel.

My favorite chocolate is Hershey’s special dark. Mm. But I’ve had Lilys and it is *good*! I’m assuming regular sugar is a fine swap for the coconut sugar. If I wanted to make this completely sugar free, could I use more Swerve or maybe a little Stevia?

I made these yesterday. Just wondering about the amount of coconut sugar– 2 tablespoons seemed like a lot (24 carbs worth!) I could do the math, but since I’m lazy I thought I’d just ask– is it supposed to be 2 teaspoons by chance?

No, it’s 2 tbsp. Yes, I know it’s carby but it really helps the consistency of the caramel. You can go all erythritol if you like but it may harden more after cooling. Or you can do all erythritol with 2 teaspoons (not TBSP this time!) of molasses to get the right colour, but it will still harden up a bit after cooling. Coconut sugar seems to hold moisture better and keeps the erythritol from recrystallizing.

I wish I liked as dark of chocolate as you. But the furthest I can go is about 80%. I’ve tried 85 and 90%, as a matter of fact, I think most of each of those bars are still somewhere in the freezer… They’re just too dark for me. I also have tried making white chocolate and was unsuccessful at getting a creamy, smooth sweet treat out of it. I’ll keep the chunk of cocoa butter in case someone far more creative than myself discovers the secret to creating that piece of perfection. But, I am not particular otherwise. Any, and nearly all, chocolate is darn tootin’ good in my book!

Now that I’m low carb/sugar free, I’ve decided I like milk chocolate more than dark chocolate after a whole lot of years. I’ve recently discovered Lily’s and really enjoy it. So glad to know there’s healthier choices for some of the simple pleasures in life.

My sensible mind says good quality dark chocolate 60% or more. My craving mind says good old milk chocolate for the creaminess and sweetness. I always have the angel and devil sitting on my shoulder when trying to decide! LOL!

These look really good. I see some in my future! I a=have tried making my own low carb chocolate and have run into problem with it seizing when additional ingredients are added. I’d love to try some of Lilly’s!

After reading through the comments, I saw you would recommend replacing the coconut sugar with more granulated Swerve for those who don’t have it on hand, but just that it would harden a bit more. It would still retain some softness, yes? Or would this end up being something like a HARD caramel candy in the middle of the bar?

Also, would ZSweet be alright to use instead of Swerve? Thanks so much!!

Yum! Tears before there were Twix, these were called “Millionaire’s Bars” and you’ll find the “all sugar, all the time” versions in cookbooks under that name! I used to love to make (and eat them) so thanks for the sugar-free version!

Yes I used erythritol. I let it boil about 3 minutes. It’s absolutely delicious!! But I have to keep it in the fridge so that the caramel holds together… I used black chocolate on the top by the way, really yum!!

These are absolutely fabulous! Twix are one of my favourite candy bars and its been so long since I had some. So glad I can eat these without the guilt or having a highly processed sugar laden product.
I used surkin gold instead of coconut sugar and Lily’s dark chocolate chips because thats what I had on hand.
The caramel took a long time to set (basically overnight) but I was impatient so after about an hour I poured the melted chocolate on top. It came out to marbleize rather than layered. So its very pretty but not the traditional mimic of a Twix bar.
Everybody in the house loves these and are unbelievably delicious. I’m fighting the urge more than one serving!
Thanks for sharing another great recipe~

I know this recipe is a couple of years old but it came up on ny Facebook feed recently and I saved it. Loved the shortbread and was wondering for ages how to make caramel! I’m in the UK and recently imported some Bob’s Red Mill Fine Almond flour – oh my gosh the quality! First biscuity thing I’ve made which didn’t taste rancid. Obviously the almond flours we get here are not made with fresh almonds or stored correctly. We used 85% dark chocolate with some cream for the chocolate topping. There is a stevia milk chocolate available here but we prefer dark.

Hello Carolyn, I love your recipe’s. They always work perfectly for me and are a huge favourite with my family. I love the look of this one but I was wondering if I could simply use extra xylitol rather than coconut sugar? I saw someone else subbed in an alternative and it worked but didn’t set as well, do you think I could use a bit of gelatin or something to counteract that problem? Any of your thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

I love this treat, it’s very nice when you want something that would be good for you on low carb, however just for anyone here, NEVER skip the whole “wait til it bubbles and cook for 3-5 minutes” for the caramel, I learned it the hard way that being to eager to take it off, made the cream not blend in but overpowered the whole thing and became white thin sauce, I ate it after freezing the bars but still, I did it again and did everything to the letter including bubble the caramel a bit then add the cream and it became a NICE gooey! caramel!

Such a great idea! I have made a few different candy bars myself but need to try this one! I have made caramel and half of the time it works and half of the time it doesn’t The erythritol in Swerve re crystallizes after it cools a bit. Have you had this happen to you and do you have any tips on how to avoid it? Thank you!

Just wondering if you have an update for your caramel sauce? I don’t use coconut sugar and don’t keep molasses in the house either. I do have that new sugar sub that’s supposed to caramalize…wondering if you have tried a recipe with that? It’s called SOLA Low Calorie Sweetener. I don’t make a lot of sweets, so haven’t even tried it yet! However, I’m wanting to “perfect” a few keto candies to give to keto friends for the holidays and I think anything caramel would be a welcome treat.

I’ve made this recipe 3 times now and it’s our favorite of all keto sweets recipes! My caramel is always pretty thin though – becomes runny if it’s not right out of the refrigerator so that’s where we have to keep these. Is this how it should be, or an I doing something wrong like not cooking it long enough, etc?

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Looking for the best low carb recipes? You've come to the right place! I'm Carolyn, a major carnivore and an unrepentant sweet tooth. Here you will find all you need to enjoy the low carb keto lifestyle to the fullest! Read more